State Repression and Struggles for Memory

In `State Repression and the Struggles for Memory’, Elizabeth Jelin exposes the enduring consequences of repression and the conflicted and contingent nature of memory. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from Bosnia to Rwanda to Argentina’s Dirty War, she explores how memory and politics intertwine and the forms in which memory – and forgetting – shape individual and collective identities. The book is rooted in the past of South America, but its reach is much wider. The analyses and reflections presented here draw on theories of historical and social memory, trauma and testimony, ’truth’ and how memory is created through confrontation and struggle. Cutting across disciplines – history, anthropology, sociology, psychology – State Repression and the Struggles for Memory is the best existing introduction to the political uses of memory.